8. Books on Unix Kernel Implementation

8.1 Ancestors of Linux

The Design of the Unix Operating System

Bach, Maurice J.; Prentice-Hall; ISBN 0-13-201799-7; 470pp.; $60 (USA).

The book that got Linus started.

Operating Systems, Design and Implementation;

Tanenbaum, Andrew S.; Prentice-Hall; 1987.

Alan Cox (one of the core kernel people) likes this book. Tanenbaum designed Minix, which is the system Linus bootstrapped Linux up from.

8.2 Linux

Linux Kernel Hackers' Guide

Johnson, Michael K.

Accessible on the Web at the Linux Documentation Project page, or directly at http://www.redhat.com:8080/HyperNews/get/khg.html.

LINUX Kernel Internals

Beck, Michael & Bohme, Harold & Mirko, Dziadzka & Kunitz, Ulrich & Magnus, Robert & Verworner, Dick; Addison Wesley; 1996; ISBN: 0-201-87741-4; 480pp.
See http://heg-school.awl.com/cseng/authors/beck.m/linux/linux.html.

A guide to Linux kernel programming; covers 1.2, slightly out of date now.

8.3 Relatives of Linux

The Design and Implementation of the 4.4BSD Unix Operating System

McKusick, Marshall Kirk, Bostic, Keith, Karels, Michael J., and Quarterman, John S.; Addison-Wesley; 1996; ISBN 0-201-54979-4; 608pp.
See http://heg-school.awl.com/cseng/authors/mckusick/4.4bsd/4.4bsd.html.

The successor to a classic book on the implementation of the 4.3 BSD kernel, which influenced Linux's design (especially near sockets and networking). This book covers the 4.4BSD base of BSD/OS, FreeBSD, and NetBSD.

Porting Unix to the 386; Jolitz, William F., and Jolitz, Lynne G.

Dr. Dobb's Journal; Jan 1991-July 1992.